Seated or standing - mind, body, & breath

Photo courtesy of Stephcarter

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I prefer my seated yoga practice over my standing yoga practice. But one of the interesting things that I've known for a while but was pointed out to me lately is that the practice is a wholeness thing. Whether you're doing seated or standing or lying down or standing on your head, you're doing yoga.

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Funny thing I've found is that my seated practice makes me better at my standing practice. On days when I can't drag my mind and body kicking and screaming into a standing practice, rather than fighting against that resistance, I do a nice, comfortable seated practice and more often than not I can come back to the next standing practice in a better frame of mind and performing better.

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Another way of looking at the same thing is this - yoga is a wholeness - you are training your mind, body, and breath (like sanchin in karate, huh?). Whether you are doing standing or seated practice with your body, you're still training mind and breath the same, and those aspects carry over to the next training even if there is little or no crossover between the physical skills of the two practices.

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Interesting, huh?

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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